The maiden edition of the National U-17 Cricket Championship will begin at the Mashood Abiola Stadium’s cricket oval tomorrow, organisers have said.
President of the Nigeria Cricket Federation (NCF), Prof. Yahaya Ukwanya disclosed this at a press conference at the media centre of the Mashood Abiola Stadium, Abuja on Thursday.
According to him, the girls’ finals will begin tomorrow and end on Sunday while the boys’ finals will take place from 3rd to 6th October, 2019.
He said the main aim of the championship was to produce the next crop of players who will go on to represent the country in age-grade competitions and later graduate into the senior national teams.
Prof. Ukwanya explained that each region of the country will present a 14-player team at the finals which will take a round robin format.
“Unlike what we use to have with the best team proceeding to the national finals, we only picked the best players from each region to represent their respective region in the finals this term.
“The aim of the championship is to get the best players from the grassroots so that we can have formidable teams for the national teams,” he said.
Speaking at the press conference, the head of Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) delegation – sponsors of the championship, Tolu Adeleke said the company was interested in taking the youths out of the street and helping to produce the next big name in Nigerian cricket.
He said PWC was keying into the vision of the NCF as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility to empower the youths through sports.
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